Zulu Newspaper Reader - Dunwoody Press

potential (in a statement of possibility, etc.):
Ngicabanga ukuthi angazama ‘I think that (s)he might try’
[Note that in Zulu the conjunction ukuthi may not occur after the
verb -th-i ‘say.’ In English ‘that’ is optional: he says (that) he is ill;
in Zulu only Uthi uyagula is acceptable, with *Uthi ukuthi uyagula
being incorrect.
USebata uthi ukungaboni kwakhe … ‘Sebata said (that) his
blindness …
uthi angathokoza kakhulu ‘he says (that) he would be very happy’
Uthe wethemba ukuthi … ‘He said (that) he hoped that …
Other verbs of ‘saying, stating, etc.’ are followed by ukuthi:
noma ungqongqoshe esho ukuthi akakhishwe ‘although the
minister stated that (s)he should be removed’
iSadtu yasho uqala u-1994 ukuthi akuphenywe ‘Sadtu said at the
beginning of 1994 that it should be investigated’]
Other examples
(a) + indicative (in a statement of fact or belief):
uzothola ukuthi abaholi be-ANC balokhu becela uxolo ‘you will
find that ANC leaders keep on asking for peace’
lokho akusho ukuthi uMnuz Mandela ukhaliphe kakhulu
kunoMnuz Mbeki ‘this does not mean to say (that) Mr. Mandela is
cleverer than Mr. Mbeki’
Abanye bake bangibuze ukuthi ngishefa kanjani ‘Others
sometimes ask me how I shave (lit. that I shave how)’
Izingane kufanele zazi ukuthi abazali bayathinteka ezimpilweni
zazo ‘Children must know that their parents are affected by heir
lives’
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